- As we told you already, the Ohio Department of Education’s charter school sponsor review process came under fire in the State Board of Education earlier this week. The piling on has begun, but obviously when State Auditor Dave Yost (I know!) weighs in, folks listen. Fordham’s VP for Sponsorship Kathryn Mullen Upton is quoted in the Dispatch’s piece, stressing once again the importance of proper sponsor reviews: “ ‘We’ve got a real quality issue with charter schools in Ohio,’ she said. And sponsors play a role in that… ‘They’re the ones that can let a bad school go on indefinitely.’” Well said. (Columbus Dispatch, 7/15/15)
- Additional coverage of the sponsor review brouhaha can be found in various outlets via the Associated Press (AP, 7/16/15), the Beacon Journal (Akron Beacon Journal, 7/16/15), and the Plain Dealer. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 7/16/15)
- The Dispatch also touches on the charter sponsor review situation while opining – again – in favor of swift charter law reform. (Columbus Dispatch, 7/17/15)
- I’m not sure whether this qualifies as irony or satire, but teachers at three charter schools in Youngstown voted to unionize this week. Yep. That should take care of it. (Akron Beacon Journal, 7/16/15)
- In other news, the Governor signed HB 70 into law yesterday. That law expands the Community Learning Center concept – popular and beloved in its pilot form in Cincinnati – across Ohio. But you wouldn’t know that from this story. Fordham is for some reason namechecked in this piece which focuses only on the amendment to HB 70 which creates the so-called “Youngstown Plan”. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 7/16/15). While the HB 70 amendment initially affects only Youngstown, it is actually a sharpening of the Academic Distress Commission protocols across Ohio and could apply in a number of poorly-performing districts in coming years. Here is a general overview of the ADC changes signed into law. Once again, no mention of community learning centers at all. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 7/16/15)
- One more stop in Cleveland today. Due to a drafting/redrafting error in HB 64 (the state budget bill), the expansion of the Cleveland Scholarship Program to three private schools in suburbs outside the city limits will have to wait until the 2016-17 school year. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 7/16/15)
- I’m sorry that I’m a little late to clipping this piece. A teacher in Fairborn City Schools has decided to resign because teaching has become “impossible” for him. He has done so publicly and with vitriol, indicting nearly every education stakeholder outside the walls of his school building for creating the “impossible” situation in which he found himself. (Dayton Daily News, 7/15/15)
